After an extension cord goes bad, an air conditioning window unit sparks a fire in a Cotton Avenue home
ALBANY, GA -- Albany firefighters battled heat and a fire at 822 Cotton Avenue on Wednesday afternoon.
The house’s renter, Shikena Ford, says a neighbor saw the fire and rushed over to start battling it with a yard hose until emergency responders arrived.
Albany Fire officials say an air conditioning unit in the bedroom of apartment A sparked the fire; they say the unit was plugged into an extension cord that went bad and failed.
Fire officials say between $8,000 and $10,000 worth of damage was done to the home. The owner is a cosmetology student at Albany Tech and says she lost all of her school supplies. She says her children’s clothes are gone as well.
“I'm supposed to be on my way to school but won't have anything. My bed burnt, my clothes burnt, everything just burnt,” says Ford. “Cherish more things because one day you'll have things and the next day they'll be gone.”
The American Red Cross is putting the family of four who lived in the Cotton Ave. home in a hotel.
Firefighters not only battled the fire but the heat index as well, which was nearly 105-degrees. As the fire became controlled, firefighter teams rotated: Some stopping for water and to cool off with wet towels while another team traded off and went to work on cleaning up the fire.
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